


Saving Grace

by Burning_Nightingale



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Horror, Mission Fic, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 14:50:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15997478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burning_Nightingale/pseuds/Burning_Nightingale
Summary: “And what phantoms theseThat gather roundSpeaking in shrieks and whispers?”When Shepard and her team arrive at the monastery on Lesuss, they find that Morinth has not forgotten her sisters.





	Saving Grace

**Author's Note:**

> I thought it would have been waaay more interesting if Morinth turned up in a similar way to how Samara does if she survived the second game, rather than just turning into a monster, so I wrote it ;)

“The car is still warm,” Liara said softly, her hand hovering an inch above the red paintwork.

“More commandos?” Ashley asked.

“They’d have been dropped off from a shuttle. I think this car came from one of the local settlements.” Liara straightened up and looked at Shepard. “Whoever they are, they can’t be far ahead.”

Ashley swung her rifle from side to side, scanning the landing platform. “The real question is, friend or foe?”

Ashley always did manage to get straight to the point. Shepard glanced around as well, cataloguing; nothing else seemed out of place. Typical sculpted and elegant asari architecture, plant beds filled with local greenery. No other skycars, but given the cold and potential for inclement weather, it was probable there was a sheltered garage somewhere deeper within the monastery. “I guess we’ll find out.” Shepard motioned toward the monastery’s darkened entrance with the barrel of her rifle. “Let’s move. Everyone stay alert.”

The motionless elevators didn’t faze Liara for more than a moment. “We’ll have to use the access ladders,” she said, pointing them out on the holographic floor plan High Command had sent her.

“Any chance of a light switch?” Ashley asked despondently, turning on her rifle’s flashlight attachment.

“There should be a main circuit breaker in the hall below,” Liara said, minimising the floor plan back into her omnitool.

Halfway down the shaft, as Shepard crept forward along the dark catwalk, an unearthly shriek echoed up from somewhere below. They all stilled, listening to the lingering sound as it faded.

“Er, what the fuck was that?” Ashley asked.

Almost the exact same words Shepard had managed to keep herself from uttering. “Trouble,” she hissed, “Stay close.”

The cold metal walls felt thick and oppressive as they went further down. Shepard paused at the top of each ladder, shining her flashlight down in a circle to illuminate the bottom and inspect it for trouble. She _hated_ missions in the dark. It always felt like they were giving the advantage over to the enemy, stumbling into their trap while waving their lights around like beacons giving away their position. Having the flashlights was better than not having them, and Shepard did _not_ jump at shadows – but she did inspect each one carefully.

“Hey, maybe we should’ve brought Garrus,” Ashley said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “His visor has night vision, right?”

Shepard, leaning over to check the bottom of the next ladder, smiled to herself. “You know him, Ash. He’d have moaned about the cold.”

“Goddess, don’t remind me of Noveria,” Liara muttered.

At the bottom of the elevator shaft, the latch of the circuit box had been blown apart and the front cover was hanging off one hinge. It emitted a small fizz of sparks as they stood looking at it. “I guess we stay in the dark then,” Ashley said.

“Fan out, search the room,” Shepard instructed. Something about the combination of darkness and silence compelled her to keep her voice low, barely above a whisper. Perhaps it was the atmosphere and severity of the mission – but perhaps it was also because she felt like she was in the first five minutes of a horror movie.

“Commander,” Ashley’s voice was all business now. “Got a dead commando over here.”

Shepard followed the glow of her flashlight. The dead asari was lying face down, a pool of blood congealing on the floor around her. Shepard crouched and placed a hand gently on her forehead. She was cold; whoever had come through before them hadn’t killed her. Probably.

“Reaper,” she heard Ashley hiss. Glancing up, she spotted the dead ravager only a few paces away; that was how the commando had met her end, then.

“She had a datapad,” Liara said. It was lying a few inches away from her hand; Liara bent over and picked it up.

“Anything?” Shepard asked.

“Hold on.” The datapad began to glow, and Liara thumbed through several pages. Shepard turned and scanned the room again, her flashlight picking out the dark shapes of a table and overturned chairs.

“This place is fucking creepy,” Ashley muttered.

“That your professional opinion, LC?” Shepard asked with a grin.

Ashley gave her a look. “I guess it is, _ma’am_.”

“They had a bomb,” Liara said suddenly. “They set it up in the Great Hall.”

Shepard turned back to her. “A bomb? How big? Did they arm it?”

Liara shook her head. “Not sure, but I don’t think so. It looks like they were getting ready to detonate it, but they were overwhelmed by the Reapers.”

“But what would the Reapers want with Ardat-Yakshi?” Shepard asked, frowning.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” Liara said, turning the datapad off and laying it down next to the dead commando.

Shepard looked down at the dead asari for a moment, then straightened her shoulders. “If there aren’t any survivors we need to clear out the Reapers, so we’ll blow the bomb and bug out.” She motioned to the open door ahead. “Let’s go.”

The next door was locked shut; while Ashley set about bypassing it, Shepard turned to Liara. “I don’t like this,” she said quietly. “The Reapers wouldn’t have deployed troops here unless there was something they wanted – they could’ve destroyed it from orbit without lifting a finger.”

“I agree.” Liara looked off into the distance. “The Ardat-Yakshi are dangerous on their own, but augmented by the Reapers…”

“No Ardat-Yakshi would want that.”

“Shepard.” Liara looked sad, but also somehow resigned. “These Ardat-Yakshi may be peaceful, but even they can be dangerous when-”

“No.” Shepard cut her off. “I met an Ardat-Yakshi. She was a killer, but not an animal. And no one would willingly go to the Reapers.”

“Yes, that’s true.” Liara glanced at the door, the light from Ashley’s omnitool washing her face in warm orange. “It’s the unwilling ones I’m worried about.”

“You and me both.”

“Open,” Ashley announced.

They emerged into a large, empty hallway with wide windows all down one wall, giving a stunning view of the mountain vista outside. “To the right,” Liara said, consulting her omnitool. Shepard bypassed the door this time, letting them out onto a small balcony that overlooked another set of huge windows.

Shepard held up a hand, but they’d all heard it; something was moving on the lower level. Shepard moved forward slowly, dropping into a crouch as she approached the railing. She held up her hand again, preparing to signal Ash-

From below came a bright flash of blue light and a squeal. A cannibal flew into one of the huge windows, struggling; another blast of biotic power ended it. Shepard closed her hand, even though both Ashley and Liara had already stopped.

The cannibal didn’t move again; it was definitely dead. But who had killed it? A surviving commando, an Ardat-Yakshi – or perhaps the mysterious visitor?

Shepard moved slowly, still crouching, to the edge of the balcony and looked down. As she watched, an asari moved slowly into view, walking over to cautiously inspect the body of the cannibal. Lithe and moving with studied care, body encased in protective leathers, she didn’t look like a rogue member of the monastery.

 _Now or never, Shepard._ She couldn’t exactly shoot the asari in the back of the head without warning – but she could take control of the situation.

Shepard stood and levelled her rifle in the asari’s direction. “Stop right there! Identify yourself!”

The asari froze, then turned slowly, her beautiful face quizzical - and familiar. “Shepard?”

Surprise hit Shepard like a punch to the gut, and she let her rifle drop an inch. “Morinth?”

“I swear you know every asari in the galaxy,” Ashley muttered, standing as well.

“This is a surprise.” Morinth took a few languid steps forward, her heels clicking on the stone floor, the cannibal apparently forgotten behind her. “Here I thought I wouldn’t see you again.”

Now the shock was dissipating, Shepard wasn’t sure whether to lower her rifle or raise it again. She could be facing friend or foe; Morinth was a law unto her own. “What are you doing here?”

“My sisters live here.” Morinth was looking at her with narrowed eyes. “What are you doing here, Shepard? Finishing off the commandos work?”

“If necessary.” Shepard lowered her rifle another few inches, trying to seem nonthreatening. “We came in almost blind. Do you know what’s going on?”

“I know Reapers invaded and High Command sent in commandos, and my sisters are caught in the middle. I’m here to get them out, nothing else.” Morinth glared up at her. “And I’m not fucking around, Shepard. If you’re here to kill Ardat-Yakshi, you’d better get back on your shuttle.”

Shepard lowered her rifle completely and shook her head. “If the Ardat-Yakshi are innocent, we’re here to evacuate them. Good enough?”

Morinth relaxed, if only a fraction. “Good enough.”

“So…introductions?” Ashley said into the following moment of silence.

“Morinth is an Ardat-Yakshi who supposedly died on Omega about nine months ago. Her mother, the justicar Samara, helped Shepard defeat the Collectors after killing her.” Liara crossed her arms. “I knew something was off about that autopsy report.”

“The nice thing about Omega is that most secrets can be hidden there, for the right price. Especially if you’re a friend of the ‘queen’,” Morinth said with a smile.

“And we all know how much Aria likes Shepard,” Liara said, cutting a suspicious glance across at her.

“Later, Liara.” And that wasn’t a conversation she was looking forward to. “We’ve got Reapers to deal with.”

Almost on cue, another of the unearthly shrieks echoed around them. “That sounded close,” Ashley said.

“Morinth, you know what’s making that sound?” Shepard asked.

“Not yet.” Morinth’s hands balled into fists and began to glow. “I’ll go ahead. You take that door and come around through the courtyard; I’ll meet you.” With that she disappeared, breaking into a run as she moved out of sight.

“Let’s go.” Shepard moved off, toward the green light on the left hand door.

“Shepard…” Liara sounded hesitant. “Trusting an Ardat-Yakshi…”

It would’ve been strange, Shepard thought, if Liara didn’t have reservations about this. “Morinth helped me before, and she’s here for her sisters. So long as we don’t threaten them, she should work with us.”

“And if we have to threaten them?” Ashley asked darkly.

“We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.”

Cold wind swept across them as the door opened; a wide courtyard lay ahead, pretty and filled with greenery, open to the night air. It seemed quiet and deserted.

“I don’t understand,” Liara hissed as they descended the stairs. “Why would you kill a justicar and replace her with her murderous Ardat-Yakshi daughter?”

Shepard sighed; Liara obviously wasn’t going to let this go. “How many times a day do you think I violate the justicar code? Samara said herself that she might have to kill me after I released her from her oath, if I was too out of line. I didn’t want to take that risk.” She crouched at the bottom of the stairs and peered around the edge of the railing. “Besides, what kind of ‘justice’ is it to kill people for petty crimes?”

“So you had a moral objection to her extra-judiciary killing?” Liara asked sceptically. “That’s a little rich, coming from a Spectre.”

“Maybe, but when I find a corrupt cop or a small time drug dealer, my first instinct isn’t to shoot them in the head.” Shepard stood and began walking slowly toward the door on the other side of the courtyard. “There’s such a thing as due process, y’know.”

“No asari would question a justicar’s judgement, Shepard. They wouldn’t see anything wrong with her killing those she judged she had to.”

“Yeah, but I’m not an asari. Besides, right now we have more important-”

“Cannibals!” Ashley yelled.

Shepard could almost feel Liara’s ‘we’re talking about it later’ glare boring into the back of her head; then Ashley’s yell of “What the _fuck_ is _that_?!” distracted her from everything else.

Tall, with spindly elongated limbs and a grotesque bloated belly, the creature’s spiked head looked uncomfortably familiar and horrifically distorted at the same time. It let out one of the awful shrieks they’d been hearing – and Shepard brought up her rifle. “Get behind cover! Go!”

A biotic attack soared over her head as she slid behind one of the raised flowerbeds. She couldn’t see Ashley or Liara, but she could hear the former open fire; the creature shrieked again as bullets tore into it. Shepard popped up from behind her cover to see the creature’s back. Her rifle let out a hail of bullets, which seemed to make a mark, but didn’t down the thing; it turned and locked its gaze on her, shrieking again. Shepard ducked in time to dodge another biotic attack and pressed her back against the flowerbed, breathing hard.

“Bullets are making an impression, but not fast,” she heard Ashley say through her earpiece. It sounded like she was talking through gritted teeth.

“You okay?”

“Caught the edge of a biotic blast, always messes up my head a bit. I’m good.”

“I can try hitting it with a warp,” Liara said, “Hold on.”

The creature screamed again, and Shepard peered around the edge of the flowerbed cautiously. It was turned away, stalking toward where Liara was presumably hiding. Had the warp done anything? It was hard to tell.

“Fire, now!” she yelled, and levelled her rifle. She and Ashley opened fire at the same time, hitting the creature from both sides. It shrieked as ichor began to pour from a wound that opened on its belly, and bullets tore through its shoulder.

Liara popped up and fired, a few precision shots to the legs that brought the creature down to one knee. Shepard aimed for the creature’s head and fired; a few rounds and it exploded messily, spattering the ground with blackened brain matter. What looked like blue fire suddenly burst into existence on the creature’s body, and within a few seconds it was reduced black dust.

They came together slowly, silent. “That…” Ashley started; she didn’t look like she knew how to finish.

“It was a person,” Liara said in small voice. “Like the…like the cannibals and husks…”

“They’re gathering troops,” Shepard said grimly. “We need to get to the Great Hall and set off that bomb, a-sap.”

Liara looked up at her. “Shepard…Morinth’s sisters…we might be too late.”

“We might be.” Shepard sighed heavily. “I hope not.”

No more enemies appeared as they approached the door into the monastery. “There’s a corridor here that connects to the upper levels,” Liara said as Shepard triggered the opening mechanism. “Morinth will probably meet us here.”

The door opened on another flash of biotics. _Morinth,_ Shepard thought – but the asari who ran into view wasn’t her. She was wearing a long white dress, and the biotic attack she flung over her shoulder looked weak and ineffectual. Shepard raised her gun-

And Morinth did appear, landing in front of the other asari with all the grace of a cat, and sending the cannibal that had been chasing her spinning backward. It landed and didn’t move; Morinth’s mouth pulled into a smug smile.

The other asari was staring at her with an odd expression; part wonder, part wariness. “Mirala?”

Shepard frowned; that name had been in the Shadow Broker’s dossiers. This had to be…

“Falere.” Without preamble, Morinth pulled her sister close and hugged her. “It’s been so long.”

“I…never thought you would come.” After a moment Falere seemed to break out of her shock and pushed Morinth away. “Mirala, those creatures, they took Rila!”

Morinth’s eyes widened. “What? Where?”

“To the Great Hall, I’ve been trying to get there.” Falere’s eyes shifted onto Shepard curiously for a moment, then back to Morinth. “Will you help me?”

“Of course.” Morinth turned to Shepard. “Shepard?”

“We need to deal with the Reapers. If we can draw them into the Great Hall and arm the bomb-”

“The bomb?!” Falere and Morinth said, almost exactly in synch.

“Figures,” Morinth muttered, “That’s what you get for playing nice.”

“You’re here to finish what the commandos started!” Falere said, pointing an accusing finger.

“I’m here to kill Reapers and save the survivors, and if that means setting off the bomb, I’ll do it,” Shepard said sharply. “We haven’t got time to debate this, your sister’s in danger. What’s the fastest way to the Great Hall?”

“Down here…” Falere pointed over the balcony.

“Okay, we need a way around-”

“No time.” Morinth held out a hand and started to glow. “I can float you down. You game?”

Shepard glanced at the balcony. Well, she wasn’t afraid of heights… “Do it.”

Morinth flexed her fingers, and a strange tingling sensation swept over Shepard’s skin. She bobbed gently upward, then went scudding through the air with surprising swiftness, up and over the balcony and towards the floor. She landed with a gentle thump.

“You good?” she heard Ashley call. Looking back up, Shepard saw her leaning over the railing and gave her a thumbs up.

A moment later Falere landed beside her. “Through that doorway, a few corridors, and down an elevator,” she said. She looked at Shepard curiously. “I never asked who you were.”

“Commander Shepard, Alliance military,” Shepard said, glancing behind to see Ashley floating down to their level.

Falere looked surprised. “Really? I never thought…I mean, even out here we’ve heard of you, Commander, and how you saved the Citadel. But we’re just one monastery…” “High Command asked me to come investigate the distress signal and missing commandos.” Morinth landed, closely followed by Liara. “Right, let’s get to the Great Hall and finish this.”

Falere led the way, darting swiftly through the hallways that stayed thankfully deserted, and soon enough they were in the elevator. “This will take us straight to the Great Hall,” Falere said quietly, wringing her hands.

Shepard glanced at Morinth, who was standing close next to her. “Morinth,” she said quietly, “If Rila-”

“I know, Shepard.” Morinth stared firmly ahead. “Falere might be the only one left. If Rila’s gone, she’s gone, and we’ll blow this place skyward.” She gave a grim smile. “Might be cathartic, actually.”

“Just so long as we’re clear.”

“We are.”

The elevator dinged quietly to announce that they had arrived, and Shepard raised her rifle. “Be ready.”

The doors opened on a large, wide room. There was no sound; moonlight fell in long lines from the high windows. Shepard moved forward cautiously, Morinth just behind her on the left, Ashley slightly further back on the right. Liara and Falere stayed in the elevator for a few moments before moving out behind them.

Everything was silent and still. A large, boxy shape sat on the raised platform at the end of the hall, under the windows; a pale figure rested against it. As they moved forward, Shepard heard Morinth gasp. “ _Rila_.”

“Come on.” Shepard jogged quickly toward the end of the room, noting the bodies of two more commandos at the foot of the steps. Rila was alone on the dais, leaning up against what was almost certainly the bomb.

Morinth went to one knee beside her sister and shook her shoulder. “Rila. Rila, can you hear me?”

“She’s alive?” Falere appeared by Shepard’s shoulder. “Is she alright?”

Morinth felt Rila’s forehead, touched her neck. “She’s warm. Her pulse is fast, really fast.” She sounded worried.

“What about the bomb?” Ashley asked.

“I’ll take a look.” Liara walked over and started inspecting it.

“Rila?” Shepard looked back; Rila had opened her eyes. She stared up at Morinth, blinked a few times, then raised a hand and pressed it against her temple, murmuring something.

“Is she alright?” Falere asked, leaning over.

Rila’s eyes opened again, and they seemed clearer this time; she focused on Morinth’s face. “Mirala…?”

Morinth got to her feet and pulled Rila up with her. “It’s alright, Rila, we’re here, and-”

Rila shivered; then all her sluggishness seemed to evaporate. “Mirala, Falere, you need to go. Quickly, take the elevator and get out of here.”

“Don’t be stupid, Rila, we came to save you,” Morinth said, her voice almost angry.

“You can’t, I…” she trailed off and pressed a hand to her head again, grimacing. “There’s hundreds coming, I can hear them, you need to go before they get you too-”

“They haven’t got you,” Falere said, sounding dangerously close to a sob. “They haven’t got you yet, Rila.”

Rila just looked at her; there was pity and understanding sadness in her eyes. “It’s too late for me,” she said quietly, “But they need us, Ardat-Yakshi, to make those monsters, so you need to get out of here before they turn you too. Please…”

“Rila…” Falere moaned, her eyes filling with tears.

“I came here to save you.” Morinth’s voice was quiet; Shepard couldn’t identify the emotion in it. “To _save_ you.”

“You can still save yourselves,” Rila said quietly.

“Shepard, the bomb’s intact but there’s no detonator,” Liara said, ripping Shepard’s attention away from the scene in front of her.

“One of the commandos must still have it,” she said, turning toward the stairs.

“I won’t go down without a fight,” Rila said behind her, and she heard Falere gasp. Shepard glanced over her shoulder and stopped – the detonator was in Rila’s palm; she looked up from it with a sad smile. “Go,” she said softly.

Morinth opened her mouth to speak, but a shriek cut her off. It was echoed by another, and another; a group was getting close. Rila’s face creased with pain and she sagged, gasping, pressing both hands to her head. “They’re inside me,” she gasped, forcing the words out between her teeth, “I can stop them. But you need to _go_.”

More screams and shrieks echoed from the corridors around the Hall; the creatures were closing in. Lots of them. “They know we’re here,” Ashley said, raising her rifle.

Shepard could see the moment Morinth made her decision; her lips pressed together into a flat line, and she looked at the detonator in Rila’s hand. Then she reached out and pulled her sister close. “Give ‘em hell,” she said softly, then pulled back.

Falere choked out a sob. “No,” she said, “We can’t-”

“Goodbye.” Rila pulled her sister close, hugging her tightly for a few seconds before pushing her away. “Now go, Falere, quickly.” She looked over at Shepard and Ashley, and nodded once.

“Thank you,” Shepard said. There didn’t seem to be anything else to say.

“Godspeed,” Ashley added.

“Let’s go.” Morinth grabbed Falere around the waist and began pulling her towards the elevator, ignoring her struggles.

“Rila!” Falere cried, stretching out an arm to her.

“I love you,” Rila said, smiling. “Both of you.”

They made the elevator just as one of the creatures appeared in the far corner of the room; the last thing Shepard saw before the doors shut was it turning to look at Rila as she dropped to one knee beside the bomb. Then there was nothing but the hum of the elevator as it rushed upward, and Falere’s futile banging on the door.

Morinth grabbed her wrist. “Stop it, you’ll hurt yourself.”

“But…Rila…”

A sudden vibration shook the elevator, shaking it in the shaft. Shepard felt her stomach flip and prayed the cable would hold; after a few tense seconds the shaking stopped, and the elevator continued to rise. Falere’s shoulders slumped and she bowed her head; the rest of the journey went by in complete silence.

The lift opened onto another landing platform almost identical to where they’d been dropped off. A haze of smoke was rising from the destroyed section of the monastery; Shepard could see flames flickering within the dark clouds. The moon was still cold and bright above them, and a chill wind whipped in from the mountains.

“We shouldn’t have left her,” Falere murmured, walking out into the centre of the platform.

“We had no choice. She was turning into one of them.” Morinth took a few hesitant steps after her. “But she didn’t die as one of them. She made her own choice.”

Falere didn’t say anything; she stood looking out into the smoke, hugging her arms close to her chest.

After a moment of silence, Morinth turned to Shepard. “So, since you answer to High Command now, I suppose this is where it gets…ugly.”

“Not necessarily.” Shepard looked over at Falere, then back at Morinth. “Not unless it has to.”

Morinth narrowed her eyes. “So you won’t turn us in?”

Shepard shook her head. “I-”

“Shepard wait,” Liara stepped forward. “Falere I can understand, but Morinth is a serial killer. If you let her go-”

“I’ll find every Reaper I can and rip them apart with my bare hands,” Morinth growled.

Liara turned to look at her, blinking. “What?”

“They made this personal,” Morinth said. “Besides, the end of the universe is a pretty big motivator, wouldn’t you say?”

“Sure, but Asari High Command isn’t going to let you join their army – and you can’t take on the Reapers alone,” Shepard pointed out.

“I hear Omega’s hiring,” Morinth smiled, “Now that you sorted out their little Cerberus problem.”

Shepard glanced over at Falere, then nodded. “Alright, fine.”

Liara was still frowning. “Shepard…”

“If High Command want to put her on trial and lock her in jail, they can do it after she’s killed a few Reapers. Until then, she can be Aria’s problem.” Shepard raised a hand to her ear. “Now let’s get out of here.”

“No.” They all looked at Falere; she had turned back to face them.

“What do you mean ‘no’?” Morinth demanded.

“I can’t fight Reapers, Mirala,” Falere said. “So I’d rather stay here.”

“Here?” Morinth asked, incredulous. “This place- it’s half destroyed, Falere! And the other half is full of dead Reaper troops!”

“All the same, this is home.” Falere shook her head. “You wouldn’t understand. But I want to stay.”

Morinth balled her hands into fists. “Falere, you’ve been trapped here your whole life! You finally have the chance to be free! Come with me, you don’t have to fight, you can just-”

“ _No_ , Mirala.” Falere stared at her resolutely. “I could have left any time I liked, but I didn’t. I believe in what I learnt here; I have my own code. And I must follow it as surely as you follow no rules at all.”

Morinth just looked at her, uncomprehending. “Falere…”

“This is my choice, Mirala,” Falere said, smiling slightly.

Shepard touched her earpiece. “Cortez, bring the shuttle in. We’re ready to leave.”

/

Shepard didn’t say anything to the asari councillor about Morinth or her sister; instead she let her assume everything was taken care of, and graciously accepted her offer of commando support. When the connection cut, she asked, “EDI, where’s Morinth?”

“On the engineering subdeck, Commander.”

Liara accosted her halfway there. "Shepard, we need to talk about that asari," she said, frowning. "Killing Justicar Samara-"

"You're not going to tell anyone, are you?" Shepard asked. She was fairly confident of the answer.

Liara's lips twisted. "No, I think that would be counterproductive at this point. We our allies to trust you, not want to put you on trial." When her eyes met Shepard's again they were blazing. "I still don't think it's  _right_ , though."

"Maybe - but it's done. There's nothing I can do to change it, and right now, I have to deal with the situation at hand."

Liara still didn't look happy, but she took a step back. "You're going to see Morinth now?"

Shepard nodded. "We'll drop her off on the Citadel, and she'll be Aria's problem. Don't worry about her."

Liara didn't look convinced, and Shepard noted how her eyes held a hint of suspicion as they followed her out of the room. 

The pokey little subdeck still held strong memories of its previous inhabitant; Shepard could almost imagine the dark figure waiting there was Jack, hidden away in the gloom where the deck lighting didn’t penetrate. But where Jack skulked in the shadows to hide from the world, to defend herself, Morinth used the darkness as a cloak, prowling hidden and unseen until it was time to strike.

“Shepard,” Morinth said quietly, a neutral sort of greeting.

“Are you okay?” Shepard asked.

“Don’t you remember? I’m always fine.”

“Yeah, bullshit.” Shepard leaned up against the table and crossed her arms. “Falere wanting to stay at the monastery was a shock.”

Morinth sighed. “I knew she wouldn’t leave while it was still standing, but I hoped, if it was gone…” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. As she said, she made her choice.” “So did Rila. I’m sorry.”

“Yes. I…I’ve never been much for heroic sacrifice, Shepard. But I suppose it was preferable to being one of those…things.” Morinth turned to look at her, frowning slightly. “I don’t want to talk about it. In fact, I’d prefer to talk about you.”

“Me? What about me?”

“About us.” Morinth watched her, eyes narrowed.

Shepard could feel her guard going up. “Okay, what about _us_?”

“You said you’d let me go, and yet we’re on course for the Citadel. I’ve been wondering if you changed your mind.” She didn’t sound concerned; Morinth probably figured she had a good chance of getting off the ship alive if it came to it.

Shepard shook her head. “I don’t have time to go to Omega right now, but Aria’s on the Citadel. I’ll take you to her, and you can convince her to hire you.” A smile tugged at her mouth. “Shouldn’t take much.”

Morinth nodded. “We’ve worked together before; hopefully she won’t be too demanding this time. I want to fight Reapers, not play gang politics.”

“Aria T’loak, demanding? Of course not,” Shepard said with a grin.

“If you can deal with her, I suppose anyone can,” Morinth muttered.

“Was that everything?”

“Just one more thing, Shepard.” Morinth looked up at her, eyes flashing with interest. “A question, if you’ll allow it.” Shepard inclined her head,so Morinth continued. “When we finished our mission… you had everything. You had the ship and the crew, you’d defeated the Collectors, told the Illusive Man where he could take his orders…You could have made out like a bandit in any system you chose.” Morinth locked eyes with her, her stare accusing. “Instead, you went back to the Alliance. You gave it all up…became their lapdog again. Why?”

Shepard held her gaze. “I realized the same thing you just have; one single person has no hope against the Reapers.” She shrugs. “The end of the universe is a pretty big motivator.”

Morinth barked out a laugh. “Ha! I missed your teeth, Shepard. You always know when to go for the throat.” She smirked. “I’m glad we share an understanding.”

Shepard raised an eyebrow. “And that is?”

“That this war is about survival. No one can afford not to fight.”

After a moment, Shepard nodded slowly. “Yes, I suppose we do share that.” She turned away, breaking eye contact. “That’s how Aria sees things as well; you might get on better than you think.”

Morinth smirked at her back. “Are you always going to hide behind another topic when we start having a serious conversation, Shepard?”

Shepard looked back over her shoulder. “We were having a serious conversation? I believe I was informing you of my plan once we reach the Citadel.”

Morinth leaned back in her seat, smirking. “Whatever you say, Commander.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
